Letters, Boys, and One Heart
by Akane Naomi
Summary: Izumi and Kouichi have been writing letters to each other since grade school. So when she transfers over to Japan for high school, there's only 1 problem. Kouichi has been writing to her as Kouji his brother, and she has no idea.
1. It's the beginning

_**Letters, Remained Loved Forever**_

Train Station - Almost 6 p.m.

"I'm nervous to see him…" Izumi thought in her head as she continued walking towards the train station. She glanced at the paper with the directions to the meeting place. "What if…" she wondered.

"So you decided to come after all, Izumi" a voice said behind her.

She suddenly turned around surprised, in relief… it was only. "Kouichi…"

_Few years back - Second Grade - Japan_

"_Ohayo!" their sensei greeted to the class, as they responded happily. " Class, we are going to do a project on pen pal letters! You will each write a letter to someone in Italy, and we will wait for their response." she explained._

_Sora leaned over to her friend Mimi. "Cool! A pen pal!" she whispered._

"_Uwah! I can't wait to start writing letters!" Mimi gushed blushing at the same time._

_Their sensei smiled at the sight of her class becoming excited and motivated. "Each person will come up to get a letter here on my desk." she pointed, as students began to line up._

_A boy with brown hair turned to his friend. "Kouichi, who do you have to write to?" _

_He grinned at his friend. "That's easy Takuya! My pen pal is a girl, her name is…" as he looked at the letter "Her name is Izumi!"_

"_How cute!" Mimi added as she looked at her letter. "I have a boy and his name is….MATT!" she blushed. Sora gave her a weird look and patted her shoulder, "Mimi-chan, you don't even know this guy."_

_Second Grade - Italy_

_As the students were beginning to return to their seats, they began to open their letters. Izumi smiled as she opened hers. "A letter from Kouichi!" she smiled. She glanced at her friend who had a gloomy look and tilted her head in question. "What's wrong Matt?" she asked worriedly._

"_No matter who I get, every girl I meet always has to end up as a fan girl" he muttered. "Or have a crush on me."_

"_Aw, I think that's cute" she teased, taking a look at her pen pal's letter. "So my pen pal is Kouichi, eh? it's Kouji?" she thought, reading what he wrote back to her._

_Hi Izumi,_

_My name is Kouji. I'm pretty quiet, and I don't really have any hobbies._

_She giggled reading the letter. "How funny" she thought_

_Well, I like hanging around with my friends. Japan here is pretty busy, but everyone around here is nice. I'm not sure what else to say, so how's Italy?_

_- Kouji_

_Ever since then, from second grade, Izumi and Kouichi have still continued to write letters to each other even after the project. Now, forwarding many years later into the future._

_Izumi - Italy_

"_You guys have to come visit me in Japan!" Izumi reminded her friends, as she was leaving for Japan at the airport._

"_Yes, yes" Matt nodded "I know Izumi, anyways, take care and don't talk to strangers"_

"_Knowing Izumi, she will" added his brother Takeru._

_She glared at him jokingly "Hey!" and grinned "Well, I'll see you" she said sadly to Matt, T.K, Rika, and Juri, hugging each of them before walking away. On the airplane, she began to wonder "I wonder if Kouji received my letter."_

_Kouichi - Japan - Afterschool from Frontier Academy_

_Kouji was coming inside the house as he skimmed through the mail he brought in. Seeing a letter to his twin, he called out "Kouichi! Mail!"_

_Tip Tap Tip Tap Tip Tap - running moment_

"_Kouichi! Stop with the TIP TAPPING AND COME DOWN HERE!" he shouted getting annoyed._

"_Sorry, I just wanted to created an effect to the story" Kouichi shrugged taking the letter. "Oh! It's from my friend Izumi" he smiled happily, reading what it said. Suddenly, his eyes widened, making him drop the letter._

_Kouji who was watching him the whole time gave him a confused look and took the letter off the ground. He smirked as he finished reading it. "So she's coming to Japan and wants to see you, so what?"_

"_It's……it's not that" Kouichi said slowly, "I….we've never met in person."_

"_Well, wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity." he muttered rolling his eyes. "What an idiot" he thought._

_His twin looked away embarrassed. "Well….about that. I kind of didn't write anything about myself…"_

"_What do you mean? You were writing lies to her?"_

"_Um…no" he paused. "I've been pretending I was…..you."_

_Oo silent moment_

_He closed his eyes and sighed. "Kouichi, please explain this."_

"_I was writing to Izumi, saying that my name was Kouji and I was writing my personality to be just like yours!" he explained quickly._

"_Why would you do that?" he snapped._

"_Ahaha" feeling embarrassed again. "That was back then in second grade."_

"_Oh" he all he could say. "Okay, I'm leaving" as he began to leave his brother downstairs._

"_No! You have to help me!!!!!!!" he shouted, clinging on to Kouji. His face turned red "Kouichi, do you mind letting go?"_

"_Oh, sorry." releasing his grip on his brother. "Anyways, you have to visit Izumi."_

"_Why would I do that?"_

"_Please! I'm not like you! Otherwise, she will suspect that I'm not like the Kouji person she knew through her pen pal letters!" Kouichi pleaded._

_He sighed "Fine,……but only this time. I'm only going to visit this girl once and that's it."_

"_Deal!" he agreed._


	2. Let me explain

"_Kouji?" the blond girl asked the next day as she walked over to him. "It's you right?"_

_He turned to glance at her. "Ah, this must be Izumi." he thought as he nodded. "You must be Izumi."_

_Smiling happily that she was finally able to see him, she hugged him instantly which took him by surprise. She let go and asked. "So, do you mind showing me around Japan?"_

………………………………

"_Kouichi! Are you paying attention?" Hikari asked as she waved a hand in front of his face. Noticing that he wouldn't answer her she got up from the table and started to grab a pen to write a message._

"_Probably got lost into his own world." Sora muttered as she continued doing her schoolwork._

_Kouichi looked at the window outside at the sunny weather. "I wonder how Kouji is doing." he sighed softly._

"_Huh?" the pink haired girl asked._

_Changing the topic, Takuya noticed that there was someone missing. "By the way, where's your brother Kouichi? Isn't he supposed to be here?"_

"_He's out there playing me." Kouichi mumbled as he put his head down resting it on the table as he closed his eyes._

"_He finally said something!" Hikari exclaimed, but suddenly got shushed by everyone. "Oops, sorry." she blushed forgetting that they were at the library._

………………………………

"_And this is a friend of mine who's family owns a bakery shop." Kouji pointed as he opened the door for them to walk inside. He waved to a brown haired boy. "Hey Takato."_

_Takato looked up from the counter and gave Kouji a surprised look. "Hi!… Kouji?" as he gave a confused look to the girl beside him._

"_Izumi, meet Takato, Takato, meet Izumi." he quickly introduced as Takato dragged him away for a moment. _

"_Who's that girl? You're girlfriend? I never knew you would finally fall for your fan girls." he commented as he nudged Kouji._

"_You better be quiet dough boy, it's a long story. Besides, she's from Italy." Kouji glared making his friend nervous._

"_Takato? Do we have visitors?" a familiar voice asked from the kitchen and walked out of the door to peek out. "Ah, your friend?" _

_He crossed his arms as it was his turn to nudge Takato. "So what's Juri doing here? I don't suppose it was studying for school was it?"_

"_Hey, how did you know about my pen pal?" he questioned wondering if Kouji was planning something._

"_Kouichi told me. You guys had pen pals from Italy. She's one of them isn't she?" he smirked as he looked at Takato's reaction which was red._

_Juri walked over to Takato and put a hand on his forehead. "Are you alright Takato? You seem red…. could you be having a fever?" she panicked._

_Seeing her worried face he shook his head no. "Don't worry, it's just uh……hot in here."_

_Kouji couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, when it's almost fall?"_

_The brunette girl smiled and nodded as she noticed another girl within their presence. "I-Izumi?!" _

"_Juri! I didn't know you came to visit Japan." the blond asked her long time friend in surprise as she hugged her. "I'm happy to see you."_

"_Actually, after you left, I followed you because I was worried. It turns out that just yesterday, I got lost and he found me." she grinned pointing to Takato. "Just my luck, it was my pen pal."_

_Izumi looked at Takato and at Juri. Leaning close to her ear, she smiled. "You two look nice together." whispering softly so the guys wouldn't hear them, leaving Juri with a red face this time._

"_W-Well, what about you?" Juri stammered as she tried to change the subject about her friend. "Seems, like you have a crush on that boy."_

"_Kouji?" as she took some thought about it and blush slightly. "I…I guess. But there's something different about him. He's just not……the boy I knew from the letters."_

"_Could it be that it's a different feeling when you're meeting someone in person?"_

"_Could be."_

"_Is it just me, or did we suddenly get forgotten?" Takato asked out of nowhere as they watched the two girls talking to each other so suddenly._

_Keeping quiet as he looked at the view Kouji sat down at a table. "I don't mind. As long as time passes by, I'm fine."_

"_What?"_

"_It's a long story, especially to you goggle heads." he muttered with a tired expression._

"_Hey!"_

"_Fine, I'll tell you."_

………………………………

"_Can you believe we've still been keeping touch with our pen pals?" Hikari asked as she finally finished her letter and smiled._

_Sora gave her a knowing glance and smiled. "So that's what you've been working on the whole time. Who is it?"_

"_Well…" she began as her face suddenly went to a dreamy expression. "His name is Takeru, but he said I could call him T.K. for short. He's nice, caring,-"_

"_Hold up." Sora interrupted putting a hand to stop her from continuing. "I think you should talk to Mimi about this. I think you have a crush on your pen pal."_

"_I-I guess I do…." she admitted._

"_Great…" Sora muttered as she turned to look at her girly friend. She became surprised as she saw her with a picture of her pen pal and a sign that said "Matt" and candles all around it. "Mimi…."_

"_Yes?" she asked as she continued praying._

"_He's not deceased!"_

……………………………

"_Thanks for showing me around today Kouji!" Izumi smiled as the two of them walked out of the shop later at night._

"_No problem." Kouji agreed as he was about to head towards a different direction. "Now I can finally go home." he noted realizing the day was over. "Although, I admit, she's not that bad."_

"_Eh? Kouji?" she asked with a confused look as her hand touched his shoulder. "Aren't you… going to say anything else?"_

"_Well I better go home and cook dinner for my parents and my twin brother." he responded without looking back._

"_You have a brother?"_

_The dark haired boy went silent for a moment. He turned around to face her giving her a sympathetic look. "Izumi, I think you should know that……I'm not who you think I am…"_

_Back to the present._

"It was you wasn't it?" Izumi mumbled softly as she gazed over at Kouichi who was sitting beside her at the park bench. "You were the one who's been writing to me."


	3. Open up

"I guess he told you didn't he?" Kouichi muttered still looking at the ground. "Well, I guess he isn't the type to deal with problems that weren't his."

The girl next to him smiled weakly. "But… I still don't get why you did that. I mean, even your brother didn't know."

"That's because…"

_Flashback - Back to second grade_

_The little boy kept staring at the blank sheet of paper during free time as everyone else already started writing. He looked back and forth at everyone and sighed. "I don't know what to say to her…" _

"_Having a hard time to write Kouichi?" his friend Takuya asked since they sat across from each other noticing that he didn't write anything down._

"_Yeah…" he admitted and looked over to him. "Who do you have?"_

"_Me?" the brown haired boy asked and laughed as he grabbed his paper in front of him and happily replied. "His name is Tomoki, he's a grade younger than us."_

"_Oh. I don't know what to write to my pen pal because she's a girl." Kouichi explained disappointed that his friend had someone to write to easily._

"_Well…." Takuya began as he tried to think of a good answer. "You could always try talking to Kari - chan or Mimi - chan, they have to write to boys. Oh, you could also talk to Sora - chan." he suggested hoping it would work._

"_That's not a bad idea." he agreed._

……………… _Later at snack time_

"_Kari - chan, you have to write to a boy don't you?" Kouichi questioned everyone sat in different tables for snack. She nodded._

"_Of course, his name is Takeru, but T.K. for short." she added. "At first I thought it was hard, since he wasn't a girl. Isn't that what your problem is? You have to write to a girl?"_

_Giving her a surprised look and almost choking on his milk when she said that, he had to know how she already knew._

"_Takuya told me." Kari laughed seeing her friend with a surprised look. "Whatever goes on between our circle of friends, goes around pretty fast."_

"_That's pretty scary…." Kouichi thought to himself. _

"_But you know." Kari continued as she took a sip of her milk. "To make your letter interesting, you could write about the things you like."_

_Kouichi thought about it. "What if she doesn't like what I like?"_

"_Couldn't hurt to try."_

……………… _Sora_

"_So Takuya says you have girl problems?" Sora laughed once everyone went outside for recess. "Who's the lucky girl?"_

"_Note to self: Don't ask Takuya for advice anymore." Kouichi mentally repeated to himself. "It's not really like that. I just don't know what to write about to a girl."_

"_Just be yourself. That's all I'll tell you." Sora quickly answered as she threw the tiny basketball in the kiddy hoop making a perfect shot._

"_Be myself?"_

"_Yep. People will like you for who you are." she grinned making another perfect shot. _

…………… _Mimi_

"_KOUICHI - KUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the pink haired second grader yelled across the playground as she ran towards him._

"_W-What?" as he turned to his friends wondering what was gong on._

"_I heard you have a girl problem." she grinned._

"_Takuya." he muttered again._

"_Huh?"_

_He shook his head. "It's nothing. So what did you write to your pen pal about?"_

_The girl clapped her hands with dreamy eyes. "I first told him about me, and how I liked he writes!"_

"_What a minute." Kouichi interrupted. "Like how he writes?"_

"_Yes!" she grinned._

"_Note to self: Mimi is a fan girl." as he turned away. "Uh, thanks for the help."_

"_Anytime!" she replied._

……………………… _Afterschool_

"_Still couldn't write anything up?" Takuya appeared out of nowhere, walking beside him._

"_Takuya." he glared._

"_Oh…" Takuya suddenly back away. "The girl problem thing? They took it the wrong way! They thought you liked someone in school."_

"_It's okay, I know you were trying to help." _

"_Do you want to play soccer?" he asked trying to change the topic. "Just to keep your mind off things."_

_Kouichi shook his head no. "I'm not much a soccer player." and noticed someone score a goal on the field with the other guys. "Who's that?"_

_Takuya looked at who Kouichi was pointing to. "Oh, that's the new transfer student. His name is Kouji, and he's good at sports, and schoolwork. He's a perfect student. Plus, he already has a fan club." _

"_Is he in our grade?" he asked looking at him from far away. "He's looks like he's about our age."_

"_Yeah, he's in a different class though. He's in class 2 - C." he explained. "Now that you mention it, he looks kinda like you, are you guys brothers?"_

"_No, I don't have a brother." and observed the new kid. "So if this is the kind of guy everyone likes… maybe I should be like him." Kouichi thought to himself. "I finally know what I'm going to write about!" he declared._

"_That's great! Can we play soccer now?" Takuya was about to say but couldn't finish since his friend was already running in a different direction waving goodbye. He couldn't help but laugh. "I wonder what he planned to write about." he wondered._

_Interrupted Flashback_

While Kouichi was explaining, he was interrupted by the blond who started laughing. "What's so funny?" as he looked away.

"You thought that if you were like Kouji, I would like you?" Izumi asked as she continued laughing.

"Well yeah, I didn't want to talk to you about sad stories I had." he answered getting annoyed that she was laughing about the situation, but he couldn't help but smile at her.

"Of course I'd like you! I really do." she smiled as she looked at him. "You should've told me sooner about it though."

"Oh yeah, that I was lying to yo-" Kouichi was about to say but was interrupted again.

Izumi shook her head. "No, I mean you should've told me earlier that you liked me. Kouji told me that too."

"Note to self: Kill Kouji." he muttered.


	4. Victory idea

"Wait what?" Kouichi asked her again hoping that he didn't hear what he thought he heard.

"Kouji, was worried that I would get mad at you about this. I admit, I was kinda upset to see this happening." she continued. "But, it was fun getting to know not just your brother, but I started to get to know you too."

"Oh, that's what she meant." he noted as a sigh of relief swept over him that she didn't take his brother's word the wrong way.

She smiled at his reaction and looked away with a kind gaze as the breeze blew by them. "I guess you felt this way because…you had nothing to tell me but sad stories, so you wanted to be someone different."

"Yeah, it was true…I mean, who wants to listen to a boy who had his parents divorce?" he sighed.

"Well, who "wouldn't" want to hear about you finding out you had a twin brother separated at birth?" she added as she pointed another fact.

He chuckled. "I guess you're right about that. That does seem interesting, and I guess I forgot to tell you. But, unlike you……your life…was always happy." as his voice changed to sadness.

Her smile dropped slowly as she stared at the faraway cherry blossom tree, watching the petals fall down again. "Not really…I was actually born here in Japan, but at a young age I moved to Italy. On our way there, our airplane crashed……only the survivors were taken to the hospital since the majority of the people were already pronounced dead…"

"Wow…I'm sorry to hear that…"

"Don't be, I had friends back in Italy who were always helping me." and paused remembering something. "Which reminds me, they all had pen pals too, so they should all be able to come here soon, since I saw Juri."

"Juri? Takato's girlfriend? That's what Kouji was telling me." he guessed also knowing that he was joking about the fact that Takato would be shy to ask a girl out.

The blond tapped his shoulder. "In the future probably. I think they look great together, they just happen to be shy."

--------------------------

**Japan Airport**

"Wow, so this is Japan…." a brown haired boy announced as he and his friends were getting off the plane bringing their bags along.

"Nice to see that the idiot finally figured it out." another boy laughed making everyone else around him giggle.

"It's a bit too bad Tai's brain isn't as big as is hair." which made everyone burst out laughing this time, and Tai with a red face.

"C'mon you guys, I'm not going to wait any longer for you." a girl glared at them for being so slow.

"Relax Ruki, we're already here, we'll see our friends soon."

-------------------

"Do we have to meet our pen pals?" one of the boys complained after the gang waited for a few minutes at the meeting place.

Izumi glared at her friends. "My goodness, we've only been here for a few minutes and already you want to go home?"

"Izumi!" a girl's voice called out as she turned to see the other group they were supposed to meet and waved back.

Once both groups met together, Sora glanced over at Izumi's friends. "So you guys are Italian?"

Matt shrugged and pointed at Tai. "Well I don't know about him, he isn't an expert at specking it. We have to translate for him."

"Hey! I heard that!"

Takeru leaned over to his brother. "At least we know his ears are still working."

"Alright!" the blond announced clapping her hands together for everyone's attention. "Now that we know a little bit of each other, we might as well figure out who's pen pal is who!" as she ran back and forth pushing people together and after a few minutes she grinned. "Perfect!"

-------------------------

"Cool! You like soccer too?!" Tai practically exclaimed as he and Sora were talking about the things they liked. "I thought you were a girly girl or something."

"C'mon Tai! I've been writing about sports in every letter." she laughed, especially at the thought that he forgot.

"Well, I kinda……lost them…haha, that's why." with a nervously laugh and grinned. "But it's better in person."

------------------------

"Matt?" the pink haired asked turning to look at him as they were walking around the area. But just before they were about to start a conversation, they were interrupted.

"LOOK! IT'S MIMI-CHAN!" a fan boy cried out as a group of fan boys began running after them, while the fan girls pouted until they saw Matt and began running. "IT'S MATT!"

"Ah! Run! It's a fan club!" they both said in unison running away.

Mimi looked at Matt while they were running. "Wait, you have a fan club here?"

"Yeah, T.K who happens to be my younger brother, were born here, and we transferred over to Italy around first grade." he responded.

"Who would've known that we had fan clubs?" she giggled as he smiled and took her hand.

"I know a place where we can hide." as he lead her towards a different direction, while the fan clubs ran the other direction.

------------------------

"You're Tai's younger sister?!" T.K. asked in disbelief pointing at her and picturing his friend. "I don't see anything between you guys that are alike."

Kari grinned. "Haha, I guess we have a great sense of humor. Only, he his is in a different way."

------------------------

"I don't really have anything interesting here." Henry pointed to his room as he opened the door to reveal nothing but a clean neat room as they both stepped inside.

Ruki glanced over at the cards he had on his study desk and picked a few up. "Ah, so you're interested in Digimon cards?"

Giving her a surprised look, he nodded. "I didn't know you knew what they were." as he took another card to glance at.

She smiled softly. "Well, I guess this is one thing we forgot to write in our letter." as she gazed over to see him grinning.

-----------------------------------

"S-So K-ken-san…." Miyako stammered since she was nervous around calm boys like him.

He shook his head. "No need to be formal Miyako. We are the same age right?" while they were walking through the library aisles checking the different books they had.

She nodded accidentally dropping one of her books that she was carrying. Picking it up for her, he looked at the author and smiled. "This author is really good at writing books, her stories are inspiring don't you think?" making Miyako blush and stare at the floor.

----------------------------------

"So Tomoki! I'm guessing you're younger than me right?" one of the goggle headed boys asked as he grinned at the shorter kid.

"Yeah… I 'm the youngest in the group." he nodded tilting his hat back and forth.

"That's cool, I have a younger brother around your age, so I like being around kids too."

--------------------------------------

Izumi glanced at everyone as they all began to go in their separate ways later that afternoon and couldn't help but smile. "They all had fun today getting to know each other."

"Talking to yourself?"

"Ah, Kouichi!" and laughed. "Don't scare me like that." as she picked up her bag and turned to him. "I should be getting home now, I bet everyone else is too."

"I'll walk you home…" he offered but still looked away as he said it, since he wasn't used to doing these kinds of things.

"Great!" quickly agreeing to his offer and grabbed his hand. "Let's go before it gets dark!"


	5. Each other's promise

_**Love is eternal**_

"Thanks for walking me home Kouichi." Izumi thanked happily as they reached her temporary house. "It was fun today." she continued noticing his moody attitude and went worried. "W-What's wrong Kouichi?"

"Izumi…" he hesitated to say it, it didn't feel right having to tell her now. "When are you leaving Japan?"

Her smile dropped as it went to a concerned expression. "I'm leaving tomorrow, but…it won't take long I promise." she grinned, but that information didn't get his hopes up.

"How long will that take? Weeks? Months? A year? Years?" he thought again.

She suddenly began to understand why he was like this. "Kouichi, I really won't be staying away for long."

He didn't answer but was surprised to see her pinky finger in front of his face. "I'll pinky swear on it." she nodded waiting for him to make the deal. He slowly took his finger and shook that promise. "Then it's a promise." he agreed.

………..

The next day at the airport

The blond girl stood in front of the boarding gates waving to her friends. She stopped to walk over to Kouichi. "Kouichi, remember that promise?"

He nodded, but was still in the moody act. "Yeah…" he muttered.

"I'll be back for New Years, and besides, I wouldn't want to come to school late would I?" she grinned seeing his shocked face.

"What?! School?" he repeated not believing what he had just heard. Snickers from his friends were around him as the two stared at each other.

"Yep, I'm only leaving to get my belongings." she happily explained, "But I'm coming back here for high school." as she pointed to the other group. "Along with my friends too."

He glanced at them and then at her. "Why didn't you tell me? And why go to school here in Japan?"

"Hey now." she pretended to be motherly scolding a child, but giggled having to point the obvious to him. "Who said that none of us were at least partially Japanese?"

Frozen solid just thinking through about it, he took a look at her friends. "They did speak direct Japanese…" he noted.

"Exactly." she agreed reading his mind easily.

"But you didn't tell me that you were only going back to get your stuff for the school year here in Japan." as he felt left out that everyone else seemed to know and not him.

Izumi paused thinking of what to say to him, and gave him one of her famous smiles. "It slipped my mind I guess."

This made him smile. It was the girl he recognized, the one who was bossy and ditzy at the same time, fun to be with. He sighed seeing that she wasn't going to change. "Come back soon then." he grinned this time.

"I know, I made that promise." she replied picking up her bag as the announcement went up about her plane that was ready to board.

"Izumi."

She turned back to see him motion her to come over to him. She rolled her eyes and sighed tiredly. "Kouichi, I'm never going to be able to leave if you keep this up I-"

"Aishiteruze."

Stopping suddenly, she turned to him again. "W-What?"

He just smiled and waved good-bye to her, leaving her with a crimson face before boarding her flight. When his back was turned, she whispered. "Daisuki." and smiled leaving through the gates.

The New Year was going to be an adventure for all of them.


End file.
